


Light My Hearts Ablaze

by RebelDrFerguson



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Building Fire, Crying and Kissing and a lot, Daddy!Doctor, Drama, F/M, Kissing, Mother!Missy, Orphan Baby, of things that would make eleven go urgh, parenting fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 20:03:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10771449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelDrFerguson/pseuds/RebelDrFerguson
Summary: The Doctor arrives at U.N.I.T with a handcuffed Missy to find no-one home. Wandering out to the carpark they spot massive clouds of black smoke of a burning building. Arriving at the location they find it’s a children’s hospital that’s burning down. Missy was enjoying the scene until she heard a cry.“Shut up!...can you hear that, it's a baby can't you hear that?”





	1. What defines a species?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, MAJOR warning.  
> This fiction included the mention of very Ill children. It contains serious moments of distress relating to sick and terminally Ill children. Please be aware it could trigger sensitive readers. If you share this fiction please, please please WARN people about the emotional consequences it could have if they could be affected by this.  
> No mention of child death will be made but due to Missy's character line, the suggestion of Euthanasia may be brought up in a mild comment.  
> Please note nothing I wrote is in anyway what the actors themselves would say or believe. This is enterally Fiction.

* * *

 

“Typical, you just had to kill him...I mean you actually liked that cafe why did you stab the guy?” The Doctor pouts as he continues to wrestle with the TARDIS console.

 

Missy shrugged from her spot tied to the railing. “He looked at me funny when I asked for lime in my tea”

 

The Doctor glared at her from across the room. “Really,...your excuses are getting worse” he sighed.

 

Having finally landed he untied his female renegade and marched her out of the TARDIS doors into what should have been the waiting arms of several U.N.I.T guards.

But on second glance, there wasn't a soul in sight. Or on site for that matter.

 

“Kate told me...where the fuck is everyone?” he shouts near the end hoping for a response. He doesn’t get one.

Missy chuckles. “Maybe they all ran away from the the big bad scary Time Lords…” she teased earning herself another icy glare.

 

“KATE?!”

 

Missy winced at the call. “For god’s sake Doctor, no one's here!” she snapped as he turned and moved for the door.

 

“I can see that thank you” he growled as they stepped out into the U.N.I.T car park to find at least all but 2 of the vans missing.

 

“Well that’s interesting” Missy muttered from beside the Doctor as he glanced about hoping to spot a soldier or two.

“What is?” he paused finally looking at the sky.

 

Smoke.

Lots and Lots of smoke.

 

Big, black, ominous clouds of smoke that bloomed high into the late afternoon skyline of London.

 

“Oh”

 

 

* * *

  


 

They couldn’t have been more than a few streets away alas the Doctor insisted they took the TARDIS for worry Missy could try and make a run for it.

 

“Oh will you calm down, I’m not going anywhere, this planet's boring anyway” she snarled as he untied her from the railings a second time and locked the handcuffs to himself so she couldn't wander off.

 

Stepping out onto the scene, they spotted Kate running towards them

 

“Sorry, emergency…” she panted clutching her mobile and a portable radio

 

“We can see that” Missy remarked earning a swat to the hand.

  
  


No more than 40 feet away sat a burning building. A humongous burning building.

 

“Children’s hospital...the fire started in the roof somehow and in less than an hour it's consumed half the place, I don't think we can stop it” Kate told them as all three watched on at the bright licking flames.

 

“Did you get everyone out?” The Doctor asked darkly as he spotted the mirth and excitement in Missy’s eyes at the flames.

 

Kate shook her head. “Some of the upper floor are still evacuating...there were hundreds of people in there, Nurse's, Doctor’s, families and a lot of very ill children who needed aid out, we’ve yet to clear the-” She was cut off by the right end of the building exploding.

 

Missy could feel the Doctor's terror and grief from the grip on her arm. He’d always been a soft-hearted idiot, but he was a real family man. It must hurt to know innocent children were in such peril.

 

 _“2 Million…”_ he’d said _. “2 million children were on Gallifrey the day I pressed that button”_

 

Missy looked away from the building. Suddenly the fire wasn't so fun after all.

 

“Structural fire?” the Doctor inquired after a long silence that was only broken by firemen shouting or sirens.

Kate sighed. “Someone suggested electrics and insulation...or water pipes and electrics, old buildings like this need massive amounts of care, anything that was overlooked could have caused this”

 

“How many children?” Missy suddenly asked in a deadpan ‘I don't want to care but I have to ask because he won't’ tone.

 

“The staff reckon they had about 80 children on the second floor, they were mostly the surgical wards, aged between 10 and 18...lower floor was paediatric oncology and such...cancer, burns ward and critical care...they held the most, close on 100…”

 

“The youngest?” The Doctor practically whispered the question and Missy looked up to find him staring at the flames with tears in eyes.

 Kate paused and pulled out her phone. “Erm, from birth...newborn..some infants have an unlucky start...bone defects, born blind or even with neurone diseases…”

 “We should leave…”

 Kate was surprised to hear the almost gentle tone Missy gave The Doctor. But now she looked at him herself she could see him cracking.

 

The Doctor shook his head. “No...you can help me do some good for once, you're trained, in fact, better qualified than me, there’s a lot of injured or sick children out here and by the looks of it the staff are spread pretty thin, so let’s go help” he gripped the woman's arm tighter and held her gaze as reminder of the punishment she’d get for trying to defy him right now.

 

She didn't need to reply because when Kate handed The Doctor a list of patients that hadn’t been checked or found yet from one of the nurses, they were off.

 

Missy had started out to enjoy the chance to gloat her knowledge of human biology and medicine over The Doctor for the first few children they found. But as they came across sicker and weaker and terminal children she began to feel sick.

 

“How can there DNA be so fucked up” she growled as they wandered about trying to find a young mother and her infant.

 

The Doctor shrugged. “Who the hell are we to judge? Human’s don't have a choice when they breed, two perfectly healthy parents can have a sick child. All it takes is one bad chromosome and bang, the child can’t walk, ends up wheelchair bound for it life”

 

“Why don't they just put them out of their misery?” she huffed solely as she watched a single father cuddling a young girl to his chest. It made her hearts ache in a reminder of her own daughter.

 

The Doctor stopped suddenly making the handcuffs jiggle and yanked her back to snarl in her face.

“Okay then you tell me...tell me that if your daughter had been born sick, defected, injured, seemingly worthless like you seem to see these humans that you would have killed her...that you would have the balls to murder an innocent child all because your DNA had failed to get it right...did she ask to be born like that?!!” he growled.

 

Missy swallowed.

Her daughter had been womb born. Things could have gone wrong. They hadn’t thank goodness but The Doctor was right...if Gallifreyans could have as much vulnerability to all those sicknesses, how many children would have been killed by twisted perfectionists?

 

Shaking her head they walked on in silence.

 

After ten minutes of walking around and not finding the women, Missy began to worry.

“I don't see her...never mind the infant Doctor”

 

“You don’t think she’s still…”

“What side was the ward on?”

“M1...right side...furthest ward…” the Doctor gulped looking up towards the charred building.

 

“The fire started on the right” Missy confirmed and they rushed towards the line of firefighters at the other end of the field.

 

“Did you get everyone out?” the Doctor shouted over the roar of the hoses.

 

“We think so...but a larger area of the second floor caved in before we got here...anyone trapped wouldn't have survived the smoke, sir!” One of the men called back.

 

The Doctor was about to say something to Missy her when she shushed him.

 

“Can - Can you hear that?” she asked she seemed to be straining her ears over the noise.

“Hear what?” The Doctor pulled a face confused.

 

Missy grabbed his arm and they made back down the field towards the end of the building which had yet to catch fire. It was clogging quickly with smoke, most of the windows had been broken to gain entry.

 

“I don’t hear-”

 

“Shut up!...can’t you hear that, it's a baby can you hear that?” Missy shouted pulling him closer to one of the windows.

Now that they got closer he could hear it. The faintest cry of an infant child.

 

“It's inside!” He cried grabbing the Mistress' hand and making for the double emergency door that firemen had been running in and out of.

 

The smoke hit them the moment they entered. But The Doctor didn't really need to see where he was going because The Mistress began to lead pulling him by the arm towards the cry.

When they reached what looked to be a corridor with rooms he pulled the sonic from his pocket the unlocked the handcuffs.

 

“Here...go...just go!” he coughed seeing her confusion at her freedom before she ran towards the sound. The Doctor kicked open the few doors that were left to check no one else was hidden around.

Missy ran for the back rooms, this area had been cut off by a heavy set of double doors so the smoke was thin here, thin enough to see. The cry became louder as she pushed aside a few tables and yanked away a heavy looking blanket from a pile of turned over equipment.

 Underneath and still boxed inside an incubator lay a baby boy.  Missy looked about to see the equipment was still running. The reason he was alive. The smoke couldn’t enter the box.

 

Grabbing a chair she hurled it towards a window smashing it opening as she bundled up the blanket from before and pulled it over the incubator. She kicked and yanked at the wall wires trying to disconnect the thing but found it too complex to remove or break without harming the little life inside. Opening the box she began to disentangle the infant from the straps and heart monitors.

 

“Missy?! Missy!” the Doctor called as he skidded through the door coughing and looking about frantically. “The fire’s hit the corridor!”

 

“I got him! Break that window and let's get out!” she snapped bundling the tiny boy into the blanket and grabbing the chart from the incubator. She’d need it to see his health stats.

 

The Doctor threw a second chair out of the previous window and kicked at the last of the glass. He pulled a curtain off a nearby rain and lay it over the debris so they could climb out  “Come on!”

He jumped down first, then reached up to take the baby from Missy’s arms.

 

He stepped back clutching the child to his chest as she jumped free of the building and took her hand running as they made for Kate and the nurses which had run around the back to help them.

 

The next few moments seem to slow almost dead.

 

The part of the building they’d just been in exploded...the baby began to cry louder. The nurse asked about the mother. Missy was reading the chart with a solemn face. Kate was patting his back as he began coughing again and all the blood seemed to be rushing to his head, he could hear someone say his name, he heard screaming...then everything went black.


	2. Is it Blood?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When The Doctor awakes he's faced with a tough choice. Missy seems to be torn in some inner turmoil and he himself can't decide whether they can do the right things for Junior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: I not a Doctor. Any medical condition mentioned has been researched but I'm bound to get things wrong.

* * *

 

 

When he awoke, his head was throbbing.

 

The fire…Missy? 

 

Where was the baby?!

 

He sat up too quickly and groaned at the flash of pain, clamping his eyes shut. 

 

“Steady on, you’ll black out again...here” a cup was pushed into his hands. He opened one eye to see Missy sat beside the sofa. He was in the TARDIS. 

He sipped at the overly sweet tea and blinked to clear the fog in his mind.

“You passed out on us...you missed the big finale too” she smirked though something about her eyes told him it wasn’t a good ending. 

 

“The building caved?” he breathed 

“Yup, the whole thing...burn to the ground…rather dramatic really watching the roof collapse in, not a nice sort of dramatic though” she sighed shaking her head. 

 

A few more sips of tea and the Doctor looked about. “Where’s the baby?”

 

“Medical ward...I managed to knock up an incubator with parts Kate got us from some of the ones they rescued, little things sleeping” she reached for the blanket she’d placed on The Doctor off the floor and began to fold it up. 

They sat in silence for a long while. Neither knowing exactly what to say after that chaos. 

 

“Did Kate say anything about the mother?” The Doctor eventually asked staring into his cup, wishing for good news. But with the infant in the ship, he guessed it wasn’t.

 

“They found her...in the rubble of the second-floor collapse with quite a few others, no survivors I'm afraid” she added quietly. 

 

“Father?” he sighed running a hand over his face.

 

“Died in a car crash while Jr was still in the womb, neither parents had siblings…” Missy stood fumbling with her skirt before tidying a pile of books to distract herself from the thickening emotions. 

 

Poor thing hadn't had a chance to see the world and it was already orphaned. That rang a few painful bells in the Doctor's chest. He couldn’t say he didn't know what it was like being alone.

 

“You said I had two options…”

 

The Doctor snapped out of his darkening thoughts to look at Missy’s thoughtful face.

“For what?”

 

“Back when you found me...you said I could either be handed to U.N.I.T or stay tagged to you…” she said looking down into the fireplace.

The Doctor snorted and placed the mug aside sitting up better.

“I take it you’ve changed your mind from trying to break out of human prison again then?”

 

Missy just nodded mutely saddened slightly when she heard her friend sigh in a mix of disbelief and annoyance. 

“Kate asked for Jr back in the morning...she said she'd find him a family” she managed to choke out frowning at her voice breaking she turned away from him again and moved to continue cleaning the table.

 

The Doctors heart lurched at the emotion in her voice. If anything this was the only soft spot Missy had. The only weakness The Master or The Mistress ever had was for children. He was never sure why. 

But he first noticed it when the Brigadier mentioned he’d brought his daughter Kate into work. She was only 6 years old. The Master had stolen a gun and everyone had scattered. Kate was lost in the fray only later when The Master had been captured did he mention to the Brigadier his daughter was in the mess kitchen. 

 

When The Doctor asked what spurred the act of kindness to spare Kate but not the seven UNIT soldiers, the renegade just shrugged. “What quarl do I have with her? She doesn't hate me she's just a child, she was terrified, she wanted me to leave and so I did” 

 

He’d sparred killing the little girl on a whim or so he’d said at the time. Wasting energy. But the Doctor knew better. 

Kate has always had the lightest blonde hair, just like The Master’s daughter. He spared her because she reminded him of what he still held dear. The only part of his heart he seemingly had left. 

 

By the looks of how Missy seemed to be coping with the fire and the orphan child, it seemed that hadn’t changed. 

 

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier, I had no right to stab at you with something that hurtful…” he offered an apology about they’re talk. Missy turned with a glare hovering on icy before it melted slowly into acceptance.

 

“It’s fine, for once...I think you were right, I was out of line with what I said…I never meant it in such a manner, you know I wouldn’t...” she forced a weak smile but it didn't last.

 

The Doctor pushed to his feet a little wobbly but managed to stay upright. 

“You said something before you passed out...you called for your granddaughter?” Missy asked crossing the room slowly reaching to brush grass blades from the Doctor’s sleeve.

 

“I-I could hear screaming...the whole, erm, I think we loosened a memory block…” The Doctor gulped running a hand through his hair recalling the flashing images of the war. Fires everywhere he looked. People running. Someone crying. He couldn’t find someone. 

 

“Remind me to take a look at later then...come on, let's go check on Junior” she offered making for the door, looking behind her to check he was following. 

 

The Doctor hesitated for a moment unsure of how events were going to unfold. Everything’s okay, he tried to convince himself. The baby’s fine. 

 

But dread licked up in his spine as he stood staring into the incubator. Missy had him wired into heart monitors and glucose drips. A blood bag hung nearby along with a few other chemicals The Doctor couldn't fathom right now. 

 

“What does he need all this for?” he asked eventually as Missy began to press a few buttons of the screen.

 

“He was born about 12 weeks ago, premature...the mother’s labour lasted too long, he lost too much blood, according to his chart he’s what the human’s call Anaemic”

 

“He’s not producing red blood cells properly…” The Doctor sighed picking up the chart himself, he couldn’t make much sense of the notes unlike Missy but he got the gist. 

“He’s going to need blood transfusions…his cell count doesn't look normal, god, he could pick up anything...any infection and-” 

 

“I know Doctor...I figured that all out while Kate and her men manhandled you onto a stretcher” 

 

The Doctor gently placed the clipboard aside again and stepped back until he hit the far wall. 

Missy glanced over her shoulder at his doomed expression and sighed again.

 

“He’ll be fine...once we get into treating him properly and feeding him and such like, his immune system should bounce back, we just need him in here, he needs to be in quarantine, that planets too full of god-knows what that could harm him”

 

The Doctor took a deep breath. “You-you want to keep him from Kate? I thought she was going to hand him to-”

 

“I know what she said, doesn't mean I’m agreeing to it” she growled hitting another button with a touch of anger.

 

“We haven’t a clue how to care for a human baby...hell, I killed my own family, I’d be terrible…”

 

“THAT was an accident  and you know it, you had no control of that explosion, you did as you’d been taught, it was such a tiny chance that it would fail, you are not a bad parent just because your family didn’t stay away like you asked!” Missy turned slamming down his negative remark. 

 

“But I should have been better! I should have guessed that could happen, I should have-I could have-” he choked up losing his voice to grief. 

 

“You couldn't have done anything more...I’m sorry it happened, but it’s my fault too, I should have asked what the hell you were doing, I could have prevented it as well, Hell, Rani didn't help either messing with your equations! I wouldn't have put it past her to have caused it Doctor” Missy complained. 

 

“You weren't there when your wife began to mess with your experiment...you’d told her to stay away” she finished as she hopped from the stool and came to stand in front of him. 

 

Before The Doctor could find something to say a shrill cry filled the room.

The pair looked over to the incubator and then back to each other. 

“I got him…” Missy sighed stepping back to the machine and opening the box. 

 

“Wait-you said…” The Doctor stuttered approaching in worry of her holding the infant.

 

“Calm down, he's safe inside the TARDIS, the whole room is air tight, nothing could get in…” she cut him off. “Oh sweetie, shush now…”

 

The Doctor could allow no more than a minute of hearing the tiny boy cry before he reached to ask silent permission to take the boy. Missy handed him over without fuss and muttered about fetching milk before turning for the far end of the room.

The second the Doctor sat down on the stool and settled the little being in his arms the cries began to quieten into tiny whimpers of confusion. 

 

Missy offered him a curious look as she returned with a bottle of warm milk. 

“Dad skills…” he smirked making her roll her eyes. She offered the bottle.

 

“Your ship seems to know better than we do…” she muttered, “I doubt you keep them on board…”

 

The Doctor smiled offering the bottle to the infant. “She has databanks bursting with things even I don’t know about, she’s a cheek for sucking up information from the underground cabling when we stop to refuel on earth these days, she’s been saving video of kittens from something called Youtube!” 

 

Missy began to laugh in disbelief. “You're telling me this ship is growing a mind of her own...you really letting her just...live?”

 

The Doctor shrugged as he watched the tiny boy drink a bit fearfully, he kept having to nudge the teat back into his mouth. He placed the milk aside with a frown. 

“I think he’s finding milk hard to swallow…”

 

Missy pursed her lips. “It’s powdered milk…” she stood and fetched the tin the Nurse had given her with the bag of overnight care items.  A Blanket, syringes with some vitamin mixture and cloth nappies. “Nurse said it’s what they tried giving him, he wouldn't take his mother’s…”

 

The Doctor scratched at the back of his neck. “There is an option...but I think you’d rather take my head off with the Queen's sword before you agree to it…” 

 

Missy just blinked not grasping his words. 

 

He glanced at her chest and back to her face. “You're...a woman now…”

 

Missy opened her mouth to protest with some long winded innuendo filled insult littered with curses but found nothing came out. How dare he suggest such a thing!

 

“I may not wish to turn him over to those humans just yet but I’m not that enamoured with him that I’d go that far mate!” she exclaimed nostrils flaring. 

 

The Doctor chuckled. “Okay, okay, It was just a harmless suggestion, relax I'm sure he just needs some encouragement…” 

 

“Looks like we’re on round the clock care tonight eh?” he sighed standing and placing the tiny bundle back in the incubator as he began to nod back to sleep.

 

Missy just huffed and made for the door. The Doctor spoke up to stop her. 

 

“Hey...look erm, thank you for this, I appreciate the risk you took going back for him, you did a good job today, he wouldn't be alive if you hadn’t heard him...I almost didn’t, I’m sure his mother if she were here, would be very thankful...” 

 

Missy almost didn't turn to look at him until she turned into the corridor. She didn't say a word, but the shine of unshed tears in her brilliant blue eyes told him everything. 

 

The little boy wriggled and whimpered as her footfalls faded in the distance.

 

“Don’t worry…” he sighed reaching to the little hand which grabbed hold of his finger.

  
“She’ll be fine, she always is...we’ll get you through this” he promised as the infant fell asleep holding tight. 


End file.
